Ep. 57 - Venus and the Man

October 19, 2017

Writers: Hugh Wilson
Director: Rod Daniel
Original Air Date: January 31, 1981
^^^ Very Important ^^^

What the writers of this episode (who included Tim Reid as well as the credited Hugh Wilson) want you to remember about this episode is its commentary about the life of Africian Americans in the U.S., specifically Cincinnati, in 1980. It is jarring to notice this is the first episode of WKRP with more than two black characters in it. The writers want you to remember the value of education in such a society. But that's not what you remember.

You remember the atom.

Venus claims he can teach Arnold the basics of the atom in two minutes and "you'll remember it for months." That's not true. I've remembered it for decades! The Newboys, The Pros and the Elected Ones got me through Grade 9 chemistry better than my teacher did. In fact, when I first received the Shout Factory box set, this was the first episode I showed my son - because he needed to know about the atom for science class. "Turkey's Away" was second.

In the previous episode, a dead frog is presented to each staff member and we watch their reactions to it. We have an idea of how each will react because, after three seasons, we have come to know the nuances of each character's personality. In this episode, each staff member is presented, not with something ridiculous, but with something very real... a black man. And not the black man they have all become friends with in the past three years, but a "Big, Tricky and Bad" black man.

The first reaction we hear is actually from the audience. They sort of gasp and oooooh the way a crowd does before two Real Housewives have a catfight ????????? What are they expecting to happen in this episode? Certainly not a chemistry lesson.

Mr. Carlson comes out first, and is visibly terrified by the gang. In fact, he seeks a sort of protection from Venus and then hides in his lush, comfortable office until they go away. Even ultra-liberal Bailey is uncomfortable, giggling her way through a half-hearted defense of education.

Yet the centrepiece of these interactions is Les. Again, remember back to just the previous episode in which Les asks Venus if he knows of "some voodoo plantation thing" to get paint off a frog. When he first met Venus in the pilot, Les asked him if he noticed "there are an awful lot of negros in sports." Venus groans at whatever Les might say.

Surprisingly, amazingly, he is not only not actively bigoted, but complimentary and excited to share some of his views on black influence on America as a whole. It's a different type of racism from Carlson's direct jump to fear and hiding. Les would never give that speech to Bailey or Herb. But Les "can't help noticing both... gentlemen are black." He could have just left the office after introducing himself as a friend of Arnold's mother, but he can't do it. Oddly, the speech he gives sounds like what a white professor might give to an undergraduate class on African studies. It sounds read from a book. Les is polite and thrilled to express these ideas he has learned in a forum he assumes would be interested in them.

I wonder if meeting Venus has encouraged Les to read up on the African American experience. He seems to know much more on the subject than he did before they met.

Johnny doesn't care that Arnold is black or big. Herb may be the most genuine. Finding a $100 bill will do that to Herb. But he isn't either nervous or overly impressed and the "hip" walk he tries after the two men leave is really just a tacked on joke.

"I think there are only two things anybody cares about in this world: 1) Survival 2) Conquest." That is a really interesting quote, especially coming from Gordon Sims. Think about what we know about him: Vietnam vet and deserter. Where was the line draw between conquest and survival for him? Failed school teacher: How did that job conquer him? Black DJ at a white radio station: is that a battle to survive for him? Does slipping a little Della Reese into the playlist constitute a conquest? Venus has obviously been thinking about it.

Venus Flytrap has always been the character that has had the least continuity to his character. When he first entered the show, if was as a flamboyant, freaky, funky DJ - a blast of New Orleans street into buttoned-up Cincinnati. But then we heard the harrowing story of Gordon Sims, the Vietnam deserter. Venus has been Johnny's investment advisor and a Boy Scout leader. We've heard that he played Triple A baseball in Texas for three years. In the very next episode, we'll hear he hosted a children's program as Sailor Ned. Now we hear the he graduated from Carlise State Teacher's College. That's a lot for one person by the age of 31. Tim Reid has mentioned in interviews that he was insistant the character of Venus portray a well-rounded black man and not a stereotypical "jive" cartoon.

So is the "jive" Venus Reid's method of "survival" - getting on a network show, and then his scattershot development a method of "conquest" - show the many sides of a man who happens to be black? Possibly. It would show just how "strong and smart" Tim Reid is.

Roy

Other Notes - There is no Carlise State Teacher's College. The closest thing I found is Dickinson College in Carlise, Pennsyvania, but they do not offer a teaching program. Cora's little boy Arnold looks like a "regular man" because he was portrayed by dancer Keny Long, who was in his early 30's at the time.